West Racing's Corvette C4: The Western Monster from the Far East #TZJblog

When we hear about Japanese sports cars, thanks to the viral trend of JDM culture brought on by the likes of Instagram, YouTube, Fast and the Furious, Initial D, and a handful of other influences, we usually think of Skyline GT-Rs, Supras, Civics, and the like as they are often the most brought up examples from the Land of the Rising Sun. These cars are so loved by many enthusiasts worldwide by providing a taste of the 80s and 90s, an era from which they strongly impacted the automotive world, demonstrating their engineering prowess and motorsports success worldwide at a fraction of the price of their European, and in some cases American competitors, and are often seen nowadays drifting, being tuned to 1,000HP killing various high powered American cars in drag racing, spitting huge bursts of backfire from their exhausts, and being stanced. Thanks to the Japanese automakers’ Gentlemen’s Agreement from back when, however, while they succeeded in fine tuning their best offerings under a loosely-agreed upon power rating of 276HP, they also managed to turn away other potential fans by not rolling 500-600HP Skyline GT-Rs and Supras off of the assembly lines as they were designed to handle out of the factory before being restricted to the approximate 300HP average that we’re all used to.

Despite that, while it can be said that there are quite a number of Japanese cars that are left inconsiderately underrated (and there are quite a lot), many often forget another quality of the Japanese: their lust for power. If you were to visit Japan, you would find that they are actually very interested in big, powerful European and American cars, alike. They also tune some bonkers cars (foreign to them) that are far departures from the “slow Hondas and Toyotas” that they are often correlated to. One such example is this:

West Racing’s Corvette C4.

Before we go into what make’s West Racing’s Corvette C4 so special, allow me to briefly fill you in on what West does for its business.

West Racing and Trading CO. is a Corvette specialty store that provides Corvette C3, C4, C5, and C6 imports, exports, sales, service, repair, parts, and modifications to Japanese owners, providing a more convenient way for them to own and maintain their cars. They even offer Dodge Viper race modifications and car frames! Based in the Mie Prefecture in Japan, they’ve been in business for over 35 years, bringing America’s (arguably) greatest sports car overseas.

Now, let’s get into West Racing’s Corvette C4. A small, select few of you who are gamers, have played on the Playstation 2, and have owned and played the title Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 (in North America) and Shutokō Battle 01/ Shutokō Battle 3 (in Japan)(sorry Europeans, they missed you lot), you’ll likely remember this one. West has taken the Corvette C4 and gave it the works with custom carbon fiber aero, a GT wing, simple, subtle decals on the front windshield and rear bumper, an increased LT5 engine displacement from 5.7L way up to 6.7L thanks to enlargened internals and other tuning magic controlled along with a West-special ECU (the example as used in the game was raised “only” to 6.2L as the above mentioned games incorporated an earlier version of the car). The engine was left free-breathing, free of forced induction, to produce a minimum of 600HP and 441lb-ft of torque. This car has been recorded to hit a top speed of 196MPH! Elsewhere around this Corvette C4, you’ll find Brembo brakes, West-special suspension, a gutted interior with a big roll cage, a Kevlar Recaro seat, a Momo steering wheel, and standard Volk TE37 rims. Not much else is known about the car besides this information…

And now for about the only video I could find of this monstrosity in real life:

And here’s a photo dump:

And here’s a link to West’s business page:

What are your thoughts on this build, or West in general? Let me know down below, and thanks for reading!